Tag Archive for General

Fancy a Pierogi? Kickstart a Chicago Pierogi Food Truck

April 28, 2013 News No comments
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Not sure about you, but this food truck freak has been a *long* time lover of dumplings (particularly Asian ones). Even as a picky anklebiter, dunking these little snacks in soy sauce was always a favorite. Then I discovered empanadas. I may lose some cred for admitting this, but I’ve never had a pierogi (dumplings of the Polish variety). Well, if a couple Chicago kickstarters get their way, pierogis may soon be served in our favorite way: on wheels.

Pierogis!

Pierogis!

196 backers have got these guys 42% of the way to their $15,000 goal to get their truck up and running. Here’s what they’ve got in store for their truck’s forever-menu:

  • Beef Pierogi
  • Potato & Cheese Pierogi
  • Mushroom & Kraut Pierogi

Preliminary dipping sauces include:

  • Applewood Smoked Bacon Sour Cream
  • Caramelized Onion Aioli
  • Jalapeño Ranch

Yes, uhm, one of everything please. We dig any truck that offers as many dips as entrees. Also, we like that this is a very realistic menu for a brand new truck (assuming they could get the city to loosen their white-knuckle grip on cooking licenses). The beef pierogi with caramelized onion aoili sounds like a safely awesome combination. We would either wrangle a couple friends to try out bites from the whole menu, or defer to fellow food truck freaks with more knowledge of the cuisine to help us choose.

Feel free to watch the video below and donate to these guys if you want to back their truck! Anyone work for a company looking to tap into the food truck biz but either finds it too difficult or impossible due to industry restrictions (like those of us who work for alcohol companies)? $10k and your logo is on the back of their truck! We thought that was a wise offering.

Good luck, Jessica and Damian (and baby Izzy)!

 


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Using a Food Truck for a Sales Pitch or Meeting

September 22, 2011 News No comments
Instead of meeting in a board room, consider hiring a food truck to impress and lure your prospective clients
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This is a guest post written by Sharon Shi, an Innovations Associate at SMGx who also enjoys and loves trying new foods.

Working at a media agency, schedules get packed quickly and sometimes it’s hard for a salesperson to get on peoples’ calendars. Guilty as charged, I’ll push vendor meetings to when my schedule and workload aren’t as hectic but, from a salesperson’s perspective, they may see it as you just swatting them away. Sometimes just to get a bit of your time they’ll offer to take you to lunch/dinner, get your nails done, plan a happy hour, etc. versus scheduling time on your calendar for a meeting in a conference room.

Instead of meeting in a board room, consider hiring a food truck to impress and lure your prospective clients

Last Wednesday as I was running out of my building and to another meeting at noon, I noticed the Gaztro-Wagon food truck right outside of my building, the Leo Burnett building located at 35 West Wacker. My automatic reaction was, “OMG, FOOD TRUCK!” As a food truck lover, I’ve only had a fair share of experiences with them and the Gaztro-Wagon was one still on my list of trucks to flag down. I then noticed that it wasn’t just the usual food truck stop but that there was a sales person standing in front with a standing banner for the digital marketing solutions company, Tribal Fusion. Then I saw the small chalk board right in front with a list of Gaztro-Wagon’s specials for the day.

I was torn. Already running late for a meeting, I just didn’t have the time to stop, chat, and grab a lunch. But it was a food truck! They just capture my heart and my immediate response is DROP EVERYTHING! I stood there for a moment taking glances of the food truck and then at the building I needed to get to and just kept turning my head and looking back and forth. Sadly, I made the decision to jet to my meeting and not go to the truck. But as I was shuffling away I thought, what a BRILLIANT idea that salesperson had!

I don’t know the exact details since I was unable to stop to chat but this is what I can assume: Salespeople are always looking for different and creative ways to get on people’s calendars. Instead of the usual bring lunch in for a client, the vendor was creative, hired a food truck and waited outside. As this is a popular lunch period, he used this time to catch people while they were out, lure them to the food truck just to get their time to do his sales pitch. Overall, I thought it was a pretty clever idea. Don’t you think so? If only I had enough time the concept would’ve worked and he would’ve gotten my time.

Connect with Sharon on Twitter @Shartron or to hear more about her adventures, read her blog at www.shartron.blogspot.com.


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5411 Empanadas: Nada but awesome

July 20, 2011 General, Reviews No comments
locate 5411 chicago food truck locator review
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I. Love. Empanadas. Love them. When I first heard about the 5411 Empanada truck, I tracked them down. A couple friends and I actually ordered every empanada on the menu the first time they were in our neighborhood. chicago food truck 5411 empanadas review packaging delivery

5411 Empanadas has a relatively extensive offering of empanadas. They have the classic beef empanada (which is very authentic as it has egg and olives), which was my favorite. I get this one every time I eat from 5411. My other favorite was the caramelized onion empanada. It is sweet without being overwhelmingly so.

 

The sweet corn empanada is great, and different in the best kind of way (especially if you like nutmeg). I had never heard of an empanada with this kind of stuffing but it is so delicious; honestly it is hard to describe this little empanada in words. Definitely give it a try next time you run across the 5411 Empanada truck.

 

Many of the empanadas I’ve had tend to have a thicker, more rigid corn-based bread shell. The only exception to that was when I had empanadas in Spain, which had a more croissant-like bread. 5411 Empanadas had a dough like the latter; it was light and flakey but crispy at the seams and very flavorful (without distracting from the flavors of the filling). The only downside was that the empanadas were a little difficult to dip in the delicious sauces that they offered that day because the outer part was more delicate.

 

Which empanada from this truck is your favorite? Have you tried their dipping sauces? If not, which dips would you like to try with their empanadas? Let us know in the comments below!

 


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